Maximo Park release their new album The National Health, and we’re happy to feature a streaming preview here.
It’s the Newcastle band’s fourth album, and is produced by the legendary Gil Norton (who produced their double-platinum second album Our Earthly Pleasures).

We’re in a global recession and everyone is being bombarded with bouncy, happy music. The nation is out of control and the record is about taking back control, and being a force for change in your own life. It can’t speak for everybody but it has its eyes and ears all around us… that’s always been a Maxïmo Park thing: look at yourself.” The album will be released on 11 June

It’s a combination that is bound to excite – Norton has such a great track record working with bands that mix three elements – guitars, poetic lyrics, and a pop sensibility: the pixies, throwing muses, belly counting crows, feeder, jimmy eat world and so many more.

The album took three years to make, with the band – according to songwriter Paul Smith – asking themselves the fundamental question ‘what is Maximo Park? why do we make music?’. The resulting album mixes elements of their trademark energetic indie-pop with acoustic and even techno. It’s all wrapped up in Smith’s lyrics, which – as you can guess from the title of the album – are rooted in the here and now: We’re in a global recession and everyone is being bombarded with bouncy, happy music. The nation is out of control and the record is about taking back control, and being a force for change in your own life. It can’t speak for everybody but it has its eyes and ears all around us… that’s always been a Maxïmo Park thing: look at yourself.”